In the Act Five, Scene 3 of "Romeo and Juliet," the Prince has been informed that Romeo and Juliet, who have secretly been married, are dead. When he arrives at the Capulet tombs, Friar Laurence, who has been detained as a suspect, tells him the details of the marriage, Romeo's staying in Mantua until he is told that he can return, the missed message to Romeo that Juliet is still alive because Balthasar has been kept from entering the quarantined city, and Romeo's desperate suicide and murder of Paris.
After he reads Romeo's letter to his father that he has given to Balthasar, the Prince states, "This letter doth make good the friar's words" (V,iii,297), and then he calls upon Lord Montague and Lord and Lady Capulet, telling them that their feud has been the cause of the tragic deaths of their children. They receive punishment (scourge) from their hatred. The Prince's line,"That Heaven finds means to kill your joys with love!" (V,iii,304) is ironic, for the love shared by Romeo and Juliet ultimately ends their lives because they have been afraid to reveal this love. Blaming himself, the Prince says that he shut his eyes to the enmity between the families by "winking at your discords,too" (V,iii,305). As a result he, also, has lost a pair of kinsmen (relatives). Consequently, the Prince declares, they all have suffered: "All are punished" (V,iii,306).
Here, at the conclusion of Shakespeare's play, nearly all the characters are on stage to bring to fulfillment what has been told to the audience by the Prologue. The "star-crossed lovers" have reached their fateful deaths because of their impetuousness--what some term the villain of the play--and these deaths are the only occurrence that has had the power to bring together the two families as they finally reconcile. Still, they all suffer from the tragedy.
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